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Penn State Reaction Arrives Quickly

Over the weekend, workmen in State College, Pa., put up a blue tarp around the statue of late football coach Joe Paterno that stood outside of Beaver Stadium. Behind that tarp, the workmen loosened and then finally removed the statue, which they moved inside the stadium for the time being. University president Rodney Erickson released a statement on the decision that read, in part, “Contrary to its original intention, Coach Paterno’s statue has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing in our University and beyond.” This was not unexpected and it was not hard to understand, but it was also oddly anti-climactic.

Associated Press

NCAA President Mark Emmert, right, gestures during a news conference as Ed Ray, NCAA Executive Committee chair and Oregon State University president, looks on at left.

It was anti-climactic because, around the time that Penn State announced its decision to remove the statue, the story first leaked that the NCAA was planning to hand down serious punishment to the school over and above the legal charges pending against administrators involved in covering up the child sex abuse disgrace perpetrated by former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky. The shape of these charges didn’t become clear until Monday morning, but the words most frequently used to describe them in the run-up—”unprecedented” and “devastating”—proved more than apt. “[The statue] was put up for all the right reasons, to honor and celebrate the contributions of a man to an institution and a community,” Mike Kern of the Philadelphia Daily News. “It had to go because it symbolized something else.” While symbolism undoubtedly had much to do with the punishment that the NCAA delivered on Monday, there was nothing symbolic about the penalties—which were indeed unprecedented and devastating—handed down.

The NCAA sought “to impose sanctions that reflect the magnitude of these terrible acts,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a press conference announcing those penalties. “Our goal is not to be just punitive, but to make sure the university establishes a culture and daily mindset in which football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people.” All of which makes one wonder what the NCAA would be capable of if it were trying to be punitive.

The sanctions announced against the school include a $60 million fine dedicated to the creation of a foundation dedicated to the victims of and prevention of sexual abuse; a four-year bowl ban; the loss of 10 scholarships over each of the next four years; the option for current student-athletes to transfer to other programs and play immediately; the vacating of all wins between 1998 and 2011, which means Paterno no longer tops the list for major-college wins, at least in the record books; and the imposition of a five-year probationary period. The NCAA also left open the option to oppose additional penalties upon the administrators involved over and above any eventual criminal sentences. “The corrective and punitive measures should serve as a stark wake-up call to everyone involved in college sports that our first responsibility, as outlined in our constitution, is to adhere to the fundamental values of respect, fairness, civility, honesty and responsibility,” said Dr. Edward J. Ray, the NCAA Executive Committee Chair.

Which is certainly one way to look at it. While the reaction to the sanctions has not yet taken shape beyond the initial gasping-at-the-severity stage, it seems to speak to the deep wish for closure, any type of closure, in this most bruising and brutal of stories. “The goal of the sanctions is to pound the NCAA’s fist down and declare that what’s wrong is wrong,” Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel writes. “On a case this terrible the organization simply can’t be soft, can’t worry about procedure, can’t rely on the same old failed methods of enforcement, Emmert is arguing. How making it less likely that Penn State wins football games provides relief for Sandusky’s victims or helps in the fight against child abuse is open to debate. Cutting scholarships just means some players who never met Jerry Sandusky, let alone Joe Paterno, don’t get scholarships. There will be understandable anger coming from State College. Harming the football program impacts innocent players and coaches. [But] that’s how the world works, of course.” At Penn State, it’s still one bleak lesson after another.

PSU athletes are role models achieving higher grad rates than almost all other schools (including football). This success, which is often overlooked here, has been sustained over several years. I hope the NCAA’s lack of acknowledging this fact as part of this discussion does not discourage these impressive student atheletes. Other schools could learn from PSU in this regard.

8:50 am July 24, 2012

The school has been renamed wrote:

It is now known as Ped State.

8:47 am July 24, 2012

This is what it looks like wrote:

When hubris catches up to you.

6:26 am July 24, 2012

Mark S. Tercsak wrote:

Lets Blame the Dead Guy.
There are those who want to blame the Dead Guy, I find my-self asking why?
It seems as if Joe is actually more guilty than Sandusky?
Could it be someone or persons are trying to hide?
lets take a look at this case.
in 1998 there are two known cases involving Jerry Sandusky one happened at a high school where he was an ast. coach and the other was at penn state. The High School case is the one I will discuss Sandusky picked up a boy from his group and took him to the group at one point if I remember correctly they got into a wrestling match and latter sandusky forced the boy into the shower, when the boy arrived home his mother
saw his hair was wet and confronted her son. He told her what had happened, she contacted the police they took a report and opened an investigation at one point the Police talked to the mother and had her call and confront Sandusky over the telephone. Sandusky addmits to the wrestling and forcing the boy to get a shower. Note the Mother did not call Joe Paterno or the Penn state Ad or the President of Penn State.
The Detective did not call Joe Paterno or the Penn State Ad. or the President of Penn State. No the Detective in charge of the Sandusky investigation called the Centre County District Attorney's office.
The Centre County District Attorney's Office refused to charge Jerry Sandusky! The Detective decided to continue with the Criminal Investigation into Jerry Sandusky until he was ordered by the Penn State Campus
Cheif of Police. Why has this been left out of the Freeh Report! why does the Commonwealth not looking
into this matter. Who ordered the District Attorney's Office in 1998 not to charge Jerry Sandusky, and who elese knew about Sandusky could it be the Board of Trustees? This begs a further question how can you have a Joe Paterno led cover-up when the Government already knew about Sanduskys transgressions yet refused to prosecute and in fact forced the lead Detective to drop the investigation.

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